Waterbox 75.2 Build

[nickkohrn]

Check that your salinity probe is connected to the Apex properly. I was having issues with mine consistently reading ‘0’ when I hooked everything up. It turns out that the connection wasn’t properly established where the cord meets the Apex unit. It worked as expected as soon as I established a proper connection. I know that it seems obvious, but sometimes it’s just the smallest mistake.

 

[Tom Stevens]

Check that your salinity probe is connected to the Apex properly. I was having issues with mine consistently reading ‘0’ when I hooked everything up. It turns out that the connection wasn’t properly established where the cord meets the Apex unit. It worked as expected as soon as I established a proper connection. I know that it seems obvious, but sometimes it’s just the smallest mistake.

Thank you @nickkohrn. I tried your suggestion, unfortunately my probe appears to be connected correctly. I opened a ticket with @neptune and they are helping. So far, their first suggestions did not solve the problem. Waiting to hear back on next steps.

Everything else is working great. Now I have to wait on the cycle to complete. I used Bio-Spira and added ammonium chloride. I am hoping for a quick cycle since I went with Marcos (dry) rock instead of live.

 

[Tom Stevens]

Here is the sump “wet”. I thought I would provide a picture of it sparkling clean. I know it will not look like this for long.

 

[nickkohrn]

Everything looks good! Hopefully you have enough room for maintenance. It appears to be a tight fit, but then again, a two-foot-wide stand doesn’t give you a lot of room to play with.

 

[Tom Stevens]

A two foot wife @nickkohrn? That’s funny; although I think you meant wide . I did my best to keep things accessible. Time will tell.

 

[Tom Stevens]

Good news, Neptune had me reboot the Apex and presto, the salinity probe calibrated successfully [emoji4] That wraps up the last loose string. Only thing left is to tweek the Apex programs and wait for the tank to cycle

 

[Tripptastic]

WOW, I love it all!

 

[Tom Stevens]

WOW, I love it all!

Thanks Trip. How is your tank set up going? I don’t know about you, but i can’t wait for the tank to cycle [emoji4]

 

[Tom Stevens]

As I wait for the tank to complete the cycle, I have been visiting LFS. I found two that look promising; Reef Lounge and Two Guys. Both are fairly close and look like they have good husbandry practices.

I also have been experimenting with temperature control. It has been hot lately and I don’t want to have to run the air. Electricity in SoCal is expensive and I have a house built back in 1960. I bought a $30 tank fan on Amazon and set it to turn on at 79. Tomorrow I will see how it does without the air on. Hopefully I can avoid the additional expense of a chiller.

 

[nickkohrn]

Any updates?

 

[Tom Stevens]

Any updates?

Still cycling. I have no ammonia present when I tested last and no algae as well. I am expecting at least some algae which is confusing me a bit. I have a carbon and GFO reactor going so I think I am going to turn off until I have measurable phosphate. I am also planning on adding more ammonia chloride this weekend and see how long it takes to get back to zero. If it only takes a day or so, then I think I am golden.

I did get a couple of clowns last weekend which are currently in QT. They will hang out there for a couple of months until I am sure they are clean of any parasites.

I picked up a KW reactor on sale. I won’t need it for awhile but it was 50% off and I was planning to use KW in anyway... at least initially.

I am happy to report the fans works good enough at cooling down the tank. If the house gets above 85, then I have to turn on the air conditioning, but that does not happen very often.

This week I am in San Diego for work so I am going to stop by AquaSD to check them out on my way home. They are close enough to home to be an option for future coral purchases.

Hopefully I will be able to report my first coral purchase in a coupe of weeks. It will probably be a softy to start until I am confident I have everything dialed in.

Oh, I almost forgot, I added a bottle of purple coralline spores so I am curious if it is going to work and take hold. The bottle said 4 to 6 weeks so I have a little while longer to wait.

 

[Tom Stevens]

Well, I have patiently waited for the cycle to complete. I have measured 0 Ammonia, 0 Nitrates and 20 ppm Nitrates for the last week so I thought I would put my toe in the water and by a beginner coral. After some consideration I choose Green Star Polyps. Before you cringe, I know it can become a nuisance once it starts growing, but I like it and I am willing to keep it under control. I also have a couple of clowns in QT. They look very happy. I figure a couple more weeks and they are going into the DT.

No algae to speak of yet, which is good. I suspect that still may come later. First time starting with dry rock so I don’t know what to expect.

I feel like I am obsessed with this tank. Having fun though.

 

[Tom Stevens]

Today I built a DIY Algae Reactor. I think I used every inch of space in the sump. I used a Littlefishies Reactor 500 and LEDs from Amazon.

I ordered the Chaeto from www.reefcleaners.org when I ordered the clean up crew. I ordered a Banded Shrimp too but it did not make the trip.

Did you notice the Kalk reactor behind the algae reactor ? It fits perfect. It is not on though, as I don’t think i need to supplement yet.

Picked up a couple more frags. Beginner stuff. I don’t want to be disappointed if I screw up.

I noticed a slight dusting of brown algae coming on so I think I timed the cleanup crew just right. I got 40 Ceriths, 5 Nerite and 10 Nassarius.

 

[Tom Stevens]

Well it has been awhile since my last update. I made a lot of progress, made mistakes and learned a lot. Before I go into the detail, here is what the tank looks like now.

I am just now getting to the point the chemistry is stable. I started using Kalkwasser at first, but I just could not get the tank water balanced. I decided to switch over to 2 part when I saw the beginnings of Calcium precipitation on the back glass. For me, the dosing was hard to control since I ran the Kalkwasser set up out of my ATO. After switching over to 2 part everything fell into line.

In the mean time I joined #SCMAS a local club and it turns out they run the #Reefapaloosa here in Cali. At the last meeting I won a raffle they hold at the end. Check out my new nem.

Now if only my Clowns will find it. They are ignoring the nem at the moment. I hope they figure it out soon.

On another topic, I ended up volunteering at #Reefapaloosa. I was one of the folks working the door in the afternoon. Maybe I saw you there? It was a great time. I bought these goodies.

I met a lot of cool reefers and was able to talk to some of the blogger personalities we follow. Anyway, I recommend attending next year if you can. Great show!

Until later, happy reefing.

 

[Tom Stevens]

I found a small (and growing) colony of Aiptasia which hitchhiked on a zoa rock I purchased at a LFS. I was not surprised, so to nip it in the bud, I nuked them with Aiptasia X and purchased a few Peppermint Shrimp. Well the Aiptasia is gone, yeah; but, so is one of my Acans!

Here is what the Acan looked like a day earlier...

This is what I returned home to from work...

I did not take long to figure out the Peppermint Shrimp were the cause. The little buggers!

OK, now to figure out how to remove them without breaking down the tank.

First I tried the old “food in the net” trick. I caught one that way and transferred to my QT. The others figured it out and stayed away.

Next, I made a shrimp trap from a gadorade bottle.

Well, I am unhappy to say there are still shrimp in my display tank.

Not sure of my next steps but I might try the net trick again. The good thing is they love food.

 

[Tom Stevens]

The shrimp saga continues, but at least I have caught some of them. I ended up making another trap out of a water bottle and baiting with their favorite Acan and some mysis shrimp. This one seems to be working. I have just one more to catch

 

[Tom Stevens]

 

[nickkohrn]

That’s such a bummer. Sorry to hear about your Acans.

 

[Tom Stevens]

Well, I managed to catch 3 of the Peppermints and they are now in the QT tank along with a Fire Fish and Royal Gamma. There is still one more shrimp left, but I am letting him stay as he has not been bothering the coral. He can also my insurance against Aplasias.

Currently I am battling brown/green hair algae outbreak. I suspect it is all part of the new tank uglies. To help keep it under control, I use a turkey baster the remove any that is bothering corals. Last night I put in new carbon and added GFO into the reactor. Phosporus is not too high, but I am seeing if it is influencing current conditions. I also changed out the RODI media since I noticed TDS is 1. Again, not sure 1 TDS matters, but just in case I went ahead and changed it out.

To help keep the tank more stable, I am trying out daily 1% water changes. So far it has only taken a couple of minutes each morning using salt water mixed from the previous weekend. I have a 2 qt plastic pitcher so all I do is turn the pumps off, dip the pitcher in the tank and fill 2 times and then replace with new salt water. If this turns out to work well, I will invest in a DOS to do the work. My y morning routine includes empting the skimmer cup, filling the ATO reservoir, cleaning the glass and then feeding the fish along with the water change. It takes about 10-15 minutes total. Very doable.

On the chemistry side, I have been measuring Alk using Hanna checker on a daily basis (sometimes twice if I am absessing). It has been hovoring around 8.4ish which is acceptable. Ideally I want it to stablize at 9 but 8.4 will do for now. I already feel like I am dosing too much as it is. I use B-Ionic 2 part at 54 ml a day for a 75 gal tank. A couple of weeks ago I stopped dosing for a day to double check that much is needed, but apparently it is.

All the corals are looking good except the wide-base frog spawn. He is just getting by. I did some research and apparently wide-based frog spawn are difficult compared to the normal branching type. I believe it, as I have a branching frogspawn which is very happy indeed.

My plan is to avoid adding anything else to the tank for a couple of months... so I need to stay out of the LFS!

 

[Bob Escher]

Your brown Hair is new tank you will also see diatoms.
Can you tell me the width and length of this tank. I’m going from either to this or a Red Red Sea 170 which I really don want ro go smaller ( I have a 45 gal AIO tank that I converted to have a sump) I will not use the sump that comes with this tank but a trigger system cube that is 18 by 18
Thanks